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Speak & Hear

If your hearing and speech are fine but you'd like to
call someone who is deaf or speech-impaired, you can call them through NGT.
You can also call NGT users – for example, if a friend or family member
who uses the NGT Relay has left a message asking you to ring them back
through NGT.

How Speak & Hear works

Using your telephone or mobile you can call or be called by someone who can't
hear and/or speak over the phone. They will be typing and reading the phone
conversation and a relay assistant, connected automatically into the
call, will read you what is typed and type your reply.

In some cases the other person will speak direct to you while the relay
assistant types what you say, they could also be able to hear you and the relay
assistant will be reading to you what they type.

Relay Assistant

When using NGT to talk to someone who uses text a relay assistants is automatically
connected into your call. The relay assistant stays on the line throughout your call,
or as long as they're needed. They relay the conversation by typing what you say
and speaking the words typed by the other person.

The other person might speak directly to you, if they do please be patient as
it might take a couple of seconds for you to tune in to their voice.

The relay assistant only relays the conversation, they take no other part in the call.
All calls handled by relay assistants are private and confidential. The emergency
services, many government departments, banks and building societies use our services.
Personal, sensitive and confidential information is relayed securely.

Direct text conversations

It could be that due to the nature of your phone conversation you don't want
a relay assistant involved or that you'd rather talk direct to someone who uses text.
If this is the case you can still use the NGT Service.

As long as you've downloaded and installed the free NGT Lite app you can have
a direct text conversation without a relay assistant.

Without a relay assistant NGT can't convert speech to text or text to speech.
When having a direct text conversation using the NGT Lite app you can either
type or speak to each other. However this will depend on whether or not
the other person can hear or speak.

If the other person is using a textphone and speaking to you there'll be
a delay between them saying "go ahead" and you being able to type to them.

If the other person is using a textphone and listening to you there'll be
a delay before you'll see their typed reply.